Grants should be available for all students.

[beachboy]

OXFORD COLLOCATIONS DICTIONARY for students of English.

- Grants should be available for all students.
- This information is freely available to anyone wishing to see it.

Can the prepositions for and to be used interchangeably in the sentences above? Is there any difference?

 

[emsr2d2]

No. A grant isn't to someone. It's for someone. You give a grant to someone. In my opinion, sentence 1 is badly worded and should say "Grants should be available to all students".

 

[jutfrank]

Can the prepositions for and to be used interchangeably in the sentences above? Is there any difference?

Just assume that no prepositions can ever be used interchangeably and that there's always a difference.

 

[TheParser]

Can the prepositions for and to be used interchangeably in the sentences above?

NOT A TEACHER

1. Two English brothers (who are esteemed by many people, including me) once claimed that prepositions in English are not part of syntax (grammar). They said that they are part of idiom. People in a certain area decide that the correct preposition is X. If you use Y, then you are not speaking idiomatically in that area. -- H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, The King's English (1906), page 170.

a. For example, here in California, it is idiomatic to say "stand in line," while in New York, it is idiomatic to say "stand on line."

2. When you have time, you may wish to visit Google and type in the words (with the quotation marks!) "available to students" and "available for students." The results may be very instructive.